http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If a psychopath like Cho Seung-Hui lurks at Yale University, he won't be able to slaughter his fellow students with fake swords purloined from the drama department.

"In the wake of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions," the Yale Daily News reported.

Responding to crises with meaningless, self indulgent gestures has long been a hallmark of the academic left, but it's spreading.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) responded to the massacre by touting her bill to ban (among other things) barrel shrouds. But she admitted to CNN's Tucker Carlson she doesn't know what a barrel shroud is. (A barrel shroud is a ventilated cover which dissipates more rapidly the heat generated when the gun is fired. Barrel shrouds are used only on long guns, not on handguns, which is what Mr. Cho used.)

The solution to global warming is not for her and her Hollywood friends to cut back on travel on private jets, thinks singer Sheryl Crow. It's to restrict how many squares of toilet paper may be used in one, er, sitting:

"I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions when 2 or 3 could be required," Ms. Crow said Saturday in a post on a left-wing blog.

Ms. Crow, who currently is touring the country with celebrity wife Laurie David to promote global warming "awareness," evidently isn't the only moonbat in the family:

"When presenting this idea to my younger brother, whose judgment I trust implicitly, he proposed taking it one step further," Ms. Crow said. "I believe his quote was, 'how about just washing the one square out?'"

A gesture designed to appeal to the likes of Ms. Trachtenberg, Ms. McCarthy and Ms. Crow could have serious consequences for Democratic electoral prospects next year.

Democratic leaders in Congress are headed for a mostly phony showdown with President Bush, because no one expects Democrats actually to deny funding to our troops if, as expected, the president vetoes a supplemental appropriations bill that includes a requirement to bring our soldiers home from Iraq next year.

Democrats want to be seen as acting to end the war in Iraq, but dare not be seen as denying funding to the troops, said columnist Michael Barone.

"The Democrats' careful strategy requires them to appear to oppose Mr. Bush's ongoing occupation of Iraq (to please their pacifist base) without taking any concrete, 'binding' actions to change the status quo," said the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid  who last week declared the war in Iraq "lost"  lacks the "skill and nuance" to implement the Democratic strategy, the Review-Journal said. His home state newspaper described Sen. Reid as "flopping around in big red shoes like Bozo the Clown."

The "high stakes game of chicken" Democrats are playing, badly, could rob the party of victory in the 2008 elections, wrote former Bill Clinton aide Doug Schoen in the Boston Globe Monday.
Congressional Democratic leaders today remind him of House Speaker Newt Gingrich in his 1995 showdown with President Clinton over the federal budget, Mr. Schoen said.

Though they largely agreed with Mr. Gingrich about the need for cuts in federal spending, voters overwhelmingly blamed Republicans in Congress for the temporary shutdown of the federal government, which threatened delay of their Social Security and Medicare checks.
"Congress was being overly aggressive and confrontational," said Mr. Schoen, who helped President Clinton plan strategy during the crisis.

"Attempting to usurp the powers of the commander in chief  or risking the charge that Democrats have abandoned the troops in the field  is one of the few ways the party could jeopardize its seemingly impregnable position," he said.

It doesn't help the credibility of Democrats that their motivations are so transparently political. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has expressed an eagerness to meet with America's enemies, anytime anywhere, but only a spate of bad publicity about her initial refusal caused her to meet with President Bush about Iraq.

"Congressional Democrats don't seem much interested in what's actually happening in Iraq," Mr. Barone noted. "The commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, returns to Washington this week, but last week Ms. Pelosi's office said 'scheduling conflicts' prevented him from briefing House members."

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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a
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